What Was Happening When

+ 12 January The British Sports Council begins a three-week fact-finding tour of South Africa to investigate racial discrimination in sport

+ 25 Jan Three Umkhonto we Sizwe terrorists, Stephen Mafoko, Humphrey Makhubo and Wilfred Madela, kill two civilians and hold the staff and customers in a bank in Silverton in Pretoria hostage. The siege ends in a shoot-out with the police in which all three terrorists are killed

+ 12 Jan In Pretoria nine people are sentenced to five to seven years imprisonment for training as guerrillas outside South Africa and recruiting others to undergo training

+ 6 May Thozamile Botha, an activist living in the Port Elizabeth area, breaks his banning order and escapes to Maseru, Lesotho

+ 10 May The British and Irish Lions begin an 18-match tour of South Africa despite protests from anti-apartheid groups. The tourists lose three of the four Tests

+ 4 June Patrick Makau, Umkhonto weSizwe member, and his child (9) are killed in a bomb attack on two houses in Manzini, Swaziland

+ 15 October A bomb damages a railway line in Dube, Soweto and Piet Koornhof, minister of co-operation and development, visits the scene

+ 30 October A bomb explodes at the Transkei consul’s residence in Port Elizabeth but no injuries result